| Summary: | Big Mine Found On Old Trail: Prospectors For 50 Years Walked Over Moss-Covered Alaska Cropping./Near Arctic Circle./But Although 60 Below Zero, Operations On All Year, Says Bradley. BIG MINE FOUND ON OLD TRAIL Prospectors for 50 Years Walked Over Moss-Covered Alaska Cropping. NEAR ARCTIC CIRCLE But Although 60 Below Zero, Operations On All Year, Says Bradley. The truth of a saying that good mines can still be found has been impressed on F. W. Bradley, president of the Treadwell Yukon, Bunker Hill & Sullivan and other mining companies and of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. The saying has been emphasized by the discoveries of one of the best bodies of mixed sulphides he had seen. It lies at a point 60 miles from Juneau, Alaska, and was found last May, he related in his Spokane office on Wednesday. "As an incentive to shoot at, part of our work has demonstrated a body 30 feet wide that averages $40 to the ton," he said. "Th ebody has been opened by diamond drills, a tunnel and a shaft. "The largest part of the cropping is crossed by a trail over which hundreds of traders, hunters, trappers and prospectors have passed for 50 years, in gom« up me Taku river. But it is covered by moss. Banker Hill Part Owner. "A prospector discovered what he thought was a crevice, but here was this big body of sulphide. A half interest in the property is owned by the Alaska-Juneau and a half by the Treadwell Yukon. The Bunker Hill & Sullivan owns a half interest in the Treadwell Yukon, so becomes a quarter owner of the new property." The sulphide contains $4 in gold, six ounces of silver to the ton, 3 per cent copper, 3 per cent lead and 17 per cent zinc, he said. Livingston Wernecke, manager of the Mayo operations, another property in the Yukon, is doing good work, said Mr. Bradley. He has six properties on the ore belt, which is 12 miles long and, so far as is known, these six are the best. Radiation Supplies Heat. The properties are hooked up with electric transmission and a good truck road. Mr. Wernecke got out 8000 tons this year, all the boats could handle, but more boats being built will make possible the movement of 12,000 tons next year. A central power plant will be put in and a long deep tunnel started to open the properties. The ore is shipped yearly to the Bunker Hill smelter. "Although close to the arctic circle the properties are worked all the year around," said Mr. Bradley. "Radiation from the Diesel engines furnishes all of the heat necessary to keep the mills warm, and the temperature descends to fcO below. "Water for milling is taken from underground. It comes from the 600-foot level, which is below the ice zone and is pumped out. It would freeze if allowed to run."
|
|---|